Problem
You want to prevent users from downloading dangerous files, such as malware or infected files. You can prevent users from downloading all files or those flagged by Google Safe Browsing. If users try downloading files flagged by Safe Browsing, they are shown a security warning.
Environment
- ChromeOS devices
- Chrome browser
- Windows
- Mac
- Linux
Solution
- Log in to the Admin console.
- Navigate to Menu > Devices > Chrome > Settings. The User & browser settings page opens by default.
- If you signed up for Chrome Browser Cloud Management, go to Menu > Chrome browser > Settings.
- Select a child organizational unit.
- Select Chrome Safe Browsing > Download Restrictions.
- Choose an option:
- No special restrictions—All downloads are allowed. Users still receive warnings about sites identified as dangerous by Safe Browsing. But, they can bypass the warning and download the file.
- Block dangerous downloads—All downloads are allowed, except those marked with Safe Browsing warnings of dangerous downloads.
- Block potentially dangerous downloads—All downloads are allowed, except those marked with Safe Browsing warnings of potentially dangerous downloads. Users cannot bypass the warnings and download the file.
- Block all malicious downloads—All downloads are allowed, except for those assessed, with high confidence, to be malware. Unlike with dangerous downloads, this does not take into account file type, but does take into account the host.
- Block all downloads—No downloads are allowed.
- Click Save.
Cause
There are many types of download warnings within Chrome that can generally be categorized as follows:
- Malicious, as flagged by the Safe Browsing server.
- Uncommon or unwanted, as flagged by the Safe Browsing server.
- A dangerous file type. For example, all DLL downloads and many EXE downloads.